Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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We’d walked for almost an
hour when we reached the Il Bisonte boutique on the rue du Cherche Midi. I entered the shop and greeted the man and woman
working there. I explained that I was
looking for a particular bag for a friend of mine. This friend, Linda, has an Il Bisonte bag that she adores. It is hand made, in black leather. She wants one like it in a camel color. I showed the man the photo
of her black bag that I had on my cell phone.
He and the woman then proceeded to show me all the comparable handbags
that they did have, but, the man explained, this particular style was from
three years ago, and they do not have any more. So I just took photos of
the ones they have in the boutique that might appeal to Linda. I emailed them to her this morning. She has time to think about it because the
boutique, like so many in Paris, is closed on Sunday and Monday. Also, Linda will be here in Paris in
September, so perhaps will want to see what she can buy at Il Bisonte
then. On va voir . . . . With that mission
accomplished, Tom and I left the boutique and made our way over to the Place
Saint Sulpice. The restored church
towers are beautiful against a blue, blue sky. The fountain in the square, all restored as
well, is flowing with water, which is more than can be said of many fountains
and other water features in Paris parks and squares this summer. On we went to visit our
friends Ron and Elisabeth. It was
great to have the time just to sit and converse for several hours. We had some catching up to do! Among other things, we talked about the
neighbors in the building, and all the various things they’d been doing –
just the things that matter to neighbors, that’s all. For example, the actress who lives upstairs
might buy the studio on the ground floor so she’ll have a place where she can
go to memorize her lines, away from her noisy children. We walked from Ron and Elisabeth’s
apartments down the street a short distance to La Cuisine de Philippe, where
we had an excellent dinner. It was all
great except that the soufflés that Tom and I ordered for dessert were not
completely cooked, and the restaurant became very hot and stuffy by the time
we were finishing dinner. We were happy to see the
restaurant fill up; Philippe is prospering.
We’d discovered his bistro shortly after it opened last summer, and
told Ron and Elisabeth about it. Last
summer, Philippe was offering discounts on LaFourchette.com in order to
promote his new place. This year, he
does not need LaFourchette at all, I guess.
We are so pleased about his success. We all paid the check and then
walked out to admire the 100-line Rimbaud poem on a wall on the rue de
Ferou. Ron and Elisabeth are working
on a very special translation of the poem. Then Ron wanted to show us
where some Boy Scouts from the suburbs of Paris had recently damaged the
glorious fountain in the Place Saint Sulpice.
The scouts climbed into the fountain and were roughhousing in both of
its tiered basins. One of the upper
basin’s rim stones had been knocked off, and repositioned in such a way that
the water now runs under it instead of over it. What a shame. Ron and Elisabeth had tried to talk to the
parents and scout leaders to get them to ask the boys to stop what they were
doing. But the adults replied that
they didn’t care if they boys were damaging the fountain. Wow.
That’s not the way scout troups that I know behave. We talked about what to
do. Ron has photos of the miscreants,
but we think the only way to use them is to obscure the faces. Tom and I thought perhaps the best approach
is to ask the responsible authorities to repair the fountain properly,
following the damage inflicted by the Boy Scouts. Asking for the Boy Scouts
to be reprimanded or fined or whatever would probably not work, we thought. You can only do so much
when you’re an American living in Paris.
And that’s the situation in which our friends find themselves. But here’s something we CAN
do: Americans in Paris are
going to have their photo taken with the Statue of Liberty in the Luxembourg
Gardens today so we can send it to President Obama for his birthday. We’ll be there, along with some of our
friends. Meanwhile, our French
friends François and Patricia and their four kids are vacationing in America
– Fort Lauderdale, to be specific.
Patricia featured a photo of an ocean rescue vehicle on the beach on
Facebook yesterday; that gave me some cause for concern, so I asked her about
it in a comment. No, the vehicle wasn’t
there for them; it just looked so American to her, that she thought it would
be a good photo. I understand; CSI Miami reruns are very popular on
French TV. The voices are dubbed over,
and sometimes, to my ear, the tonal qualities of the voices used don’t match
the character. The effect is strange. Voices, voices, so many
voices speaking English over in the 6th arrondissement! It is not like that here in the 15th. We’ll be back over there
later today, with plenty of opportunity to practice our English! |
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Place
Saint Sulpice.
Italian
leather handbag by Il Bisonte.
Shrimp
salad (above) and Dorade Royale (below) at La
Cuisine de Philippe on the rue Servandoni in the 6th
arrondissement.
Rue
Abel, as seen from the Promenade Plantée, seems
like it would be a quiet and nice place to live in Paris.
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